8839/A Spar From Above

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A Spar From Above
Date of Scene: 27 November 2021
Location: Courtyard and Arena
Synopsis: Diana and Angela take a tour of the Themy Arts Center. A spar breaks out in the sandy sandy arena!
Cast of Characters: Diana Prince, Aldrif Odinsdottir




Diana Prince has posed:
Diana had invited Angela to the Themysciran Arts Center to show her the newly opened location that puts her island home culture on display for the people of the world. Based near to the Embassy of her people, the Arts Center is a multi story building filled with everything Themysciran. From public cafes to theater shows, to areas dedicated to teaching people how to paint and sculpt like the women from the paradise island.

But one of the main attractions is the courtyard and arena. The arena being a scaled-down version of the same from the island. A place where the Amazons in America can train, or put on public displays for guests to sit in the stands and behold the skills and talents of the mystical warrior women.

This is where Diana and Angela have ended up on the personally guided tour of the grounds. The Princess is wearing her dark blue cloak over her armored form and she walks with Angela through the archway in to the arena proper. The ground of the arena is a sun warmed sand brought from the island itself, and resting around the sandy floor of the open space are racks of Themysciran weapons and some armor even. From bows and arrows, to swords and shields, hammers and axes, there is a wide selection of handcrafted tools of war on display here now, with two Amazonian warrior guards standing outside the archway on-duty to watch over the arena.

Diana steps lightly across the sand and motions around them. "This is a big draw for visitors, as you can imagine. They are eager to see the training of my people up close and personal, so to speak." She says with a soft smile for the Angel accompanying her today.

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Angela has been attentive and keenly, almost suspiciously observant during the tour, but if you thought she couldn't kick it up a notch when reaching the training arena, you'd be in for a surprise. Her eyes take in every nick and dent on the weapons, the placement of the guards and their weapons, how densely packed the sand is and what that implies about footing...
    Angela nods at Diana and reaches behind herself with both hands, grasping the ties that hold Xiphos's sheath to her back. "For their sakes, I hope their eyes are fast enough to follow." She removes the sword from her belt and walks it over to the weapons stand, setting it down carefully. "What are your terms of battle, Lady Diana?"

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana stands mostly motionless at the heart of the arena floor, her eyes going to Angela as she removes her sword and walks past her to the weapons racks. She hears the question asked of her and it makes her loft her right dark brow up just a little bit. Her head tilts to the side some along with it before she walks toward Angela and the weapons resting in their proper places. "My terms?" Diana asks then.

Her eyes glance over the weapons before she looks to the other woman and shows a faint smile. "this is a challenge, isn't it?" She says in a vaguely amused sort of way to the woman who speaks bluntly and mostly absent of emotion.

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Angela nods once, seriously. "Yes. It is a challenge, not a duel. I wish to make my respect for your customs, which I do not know."
    Her hands dangle at her sides. Her bracelets, like Diana's but golden, are running down her hands like water, but instead of dripping are reforming into weapons that fill her palms as they grow and take shape: one fairly normal-looking short sword, and one wide-bladed handaxe with odd, semicircular divots cut out of it that might be intended to catch a blade or might just be alien frippery in the design. Her twin ribbons are raised, two feet of them mostly parallel to the ground and the lengths curving downward like a preying mantis's limbs. All this is happening as she continues to speak, as if she needn't pay attention to it at all. "If you wish to disallow any particular weapons or tactics, I am amenable to your methods."

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana observes Angela as she forms those weapons in her grasp. It makes her lips twitch a bit in show of further amusement before she puts her eyes back on the other woman's own. "I encourage you to do what you feel is best from your training." The Princess replies as she reaches up to pull her cloak off of her shoulders, folding it over her forearms before she lays it aside. "Besides... I am eager to find out what you are capable of." She adds with a quick smile sent to Angela before she takes a few steps down the rack to wrap her fingers around the grip of a gladiator sword with a shining gold handle and a silvery gleaming blade.

With the sword pulled from the racck with a twang of metal against metal, the Princess gives it a testing twirl in her leather wrapped palm before she starts to walk away from the racks, her wedge heeled armored boots near-silent upon the sandy floor as she keeps her stare on Angela now.

"I imagine you would wish the same thing from me, no?" She asks a bit coyly.

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Almost no human beings can attack without giving a signal that they're preparing to. Humans are hardwired to prefer cooperation and to fear violence, so an attack almost always involves a certain amount of lead-up as the would-be aggressor convinces herself both that she can win the fight and that the attack is justified. The only humans who can attack without telegraphing the intent are psychopaths.
    It remains to be seen whether Angela is a psychopath or if all angels can simply attack without warning, but she gives no sign. Like a snake lashing out from a bush, she flashes across the distance fast enough to leave a contrail of sand behind her, leading with the clumsier handaxe ahead and aimed at throat level, the more agile shortsword drawn back to her ear, tip pointed at Diana's eyes to conceal the weapon's length until it's time to strike.

Diana Prince has posed:
In her time away from Themyscira, Diana has seen a diverse amount of extremely capable combatants. She's battled some of the most capable warriors that can likely even exist. She's generally always came out on top, though, especially when it mattered most.

Here and now, she witnesses Angela's impressive speed, her impressive ability to go from zero to a thousand in less than an eyelid's blink.

Lucky for the Princess of Themyscira that her Goddess-like reflexes grant her the ability to be forewarned for incoming attacks!

Angela's swipe toward Diana's upper body is met with the raise of her left shining bracer! The resulting metallic clang echoes through the otherwise empty arena, with sparks flying off between the two women! The attack is thusly parried and Diana sweeps herself around with the motion to attempt to strike Angela in the back between her shoulder blades with the pommel of her sword! Both women are capable of moving at tremendous speeds!

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    A woman fast enough to dodge lightning meets another woman fast enough to dodge lightning. It's up to the reader to guess which is which.
    Angela's body is already basically horizontal from her attack, so there's no blocking the incoming blow with her limbs. Her ribbons might be able to manage it, but they're slower and weaker than she is, so it's not worth the risk. Instead, Angela, for whom flight is not a superpower but just a natural form of movement, dives downward like a hitter sliding into first base. She only barely manages to avoid Wonder Woman's counterstrike, which is worrying: Angela does have some speed left in her, but not a lot. Unless Wonder Woman put everything into that single counter, she's probably faster than Angela.
    Worrying but not insurmountable. There are other advantages.
    Angela has no time to realign her weapons for a blow as she drops like a bomb from a WWI-era plane, so she doesn't bother. She just shoots forward toward Diana's shins, meaning to plow the Amazon's legs out from under her.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana's attack was meant to destabilize Angela on her feet, as well as test the waters of her new opponent!

When their bodies part ways, and Diana pivots herself around to face the other woman again, she stands with a wider spread of her armored boots upon the sand, her knees bent a bit more than before, with her strong thighs flexing as she prepares for the next onslaught.

When it comes, Angela's sweep to the legs impacts against armored boots, causing Diana not to tumble, but instead to glide backward on the sand itself! She is rushed back against the wall of the arena where a wave of sand spreads up and splashes against the stone wall, as Diana uses the momentum to walk backward up the wall and leap away from it! Up in to the air, she tumbles in a full inverted flip, with sand trailing after her boots, as she comes to land behind Angela and strike fast and swift with her shining metal sword! Three attacks come in quick succinct strikes toward Angela's mid-section as the fight heats up!

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    So flight is natural for Diana too, or at least so well-trained it might as well be. No advantage to Angela there, and she barely has time to right herself before more attacks come in. She hasn't the time to block, even though the handaxe's weirdly round head now makes more sense (she's swinging it inward toward her body like a shield), so she relies on the advantage she knows she has: her ribbons. They lash out not at Diana's arms, which they know they can't block, but at the Amazon's legs again not to sweep but to grab and bind and throw Diana's balance off just long enough for Angela get her axe-shield combo into place.
    What have we learned, Angela? That betting everything on a single surprising strike is risky? Good girl.
    Through all of this, all the near-misses she's scrabbling to recover from, no distress shows on Angela's face, just ferocity. Her lips are parted in a vicious snarl that is honest but also conceals the truth of the pleasure coursing through her body right now. Adrenaline flowing, heart pounding, mind and reflexes synced to the point that time seems to dilate: this is ecstasy.

Diana Prince has posed:
The nature of a good spar often gets the adrenaline up in a warrior, these two women both understanding that. Positive emotions can be a powerful thing when enjoying the prowess of a skilled opponent such as this yields.

The ribbons grasp around Diana's legs and do gain some advantage for Angela's strike, Wonder Woman being sent backwards now in to a reverse tumble to gain distance from them, after the heavy weapon Angela wields is deflected away!

The Princess tumbles backward across the sand, until she ends up in a crouch with her right leg extended out behind her, and her dark hair wild around her otherwise bare shoulders, her sword coming up to be grasped in both her hands as she wholds it up defensively, a wild look of concentration on her face as she glares across the distance between them at Angela's own face.

Now it is time for Diana's impossibly fast lunging attack. She launches herself at Angela and means to deliver a armored knee to the woman's stomach, as well as a downward strike from above!

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Now that Angela has adjusted her thinking, switched her brain from 'huntress' mode to 'fighter' mode, Diana's speed is much less daunting. She spares some attention to her own defense, and shows Diana how Heven's huntmistress can fight, her movements brutally efficient and wasting nothing on flourish, left hand raising the axe like a shield to block the overhead blow, back of her right hand swinging toward Diana's knee in a hard block guaranteed to raise bruises on bother women but, more importantly, to test their relative strength. Diana fought Scylla well enough to defeat it in a few blows, but Angela could have done the same. Who's stronger?
    Her ribbons retreat from the fight, guarding Angela's back, partially out of respect for her desire to test her opponent and partially out of hurt feelings that Diana got out of their grip so easily.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana drops back down to the ground with a burst of sand around her feet as their weapons lock with more sparks flying from the initial block from the Angel. Now the two strong women are pushing back and forth at one another, the blocked attack to Diana's leg throbbing, but in a way that is nothing new for the Princess who had trained for ages with her sisters back within the paradise she hails from.

With teeth clenched, Diana pushes back against Angela's strength, their forearms close to each other's as her eyes are locked with Angela's. The Princess takes aggressive steps in the sand toward the Angel to try and gain a literal upper footing in the clash, and after nearly a full minute, their weapons grind off of each other with more sparks flying in to the air before Diana dashes to the side...

What comes next is similar in some ways to those ribbons that retreated....

A golden glowing rope extends from Diana's right hand that shot down to her hip, she attempts to snap it around one of Angela's ankles to drop the wingless Angel to the sandy floor!

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Angela's hands are wrapped in bandages already, so the oncoming bruise from Diana's kick won't be visible until she takes them off. She's not concerned by it. Her ichor blade is already flowing up her hand to take the shape of a bladed gauntlet, reinforcing her injury and giving her a surprising number of options to deal with that sword at the cost of a little bit of reach.
    ...Which is why it was a smart move for Diana to switch to the lasso. Angela sees it coming because it's hard not to when swinging a lasso made of golden light, but when you use it right, its length actually increases its speed rather than reduces it; and, to no one's surprise, Diana of Themyscira is pretty good at using a rope.
    So, there's no avoiding getting caught or pulled. There's only working with it, letting it pull her off-balance but also tucking her free leg up toward her chest and twirling in midair as she goes, her hair whipping around her like a ginger tornado, spooling as much of the Lasso of Truth around her leg as she can to deny it to her opponent before she hits the ground.
    She's never had more fun.

Diana Prince has posed:
Being nearly a thousand years old now, Diana has indeed trained with the lasso for a very long time. It was always one of her most favorite tools to use, being non-lethal by nature it appealed to the Princess who generally does everything in her power to spare lives, rather than take them...

Seeing Angela's reaction to the lasso wrapping around her left leg, gives Diana some measure of belief she can work with this to get the upper-hand in this sparring match! She knows the woman is drawing her back in close, and though it seems the Angel wishes to have the lasso only wrap about her leg, Diana seems to have other ideas in mind, as she starts to lunge past the woman now, attempting to not just grab at a leg with the Lasso of Hestia, but also to wrap the woman up more fully in it, from leg up to torso and arms!

Like a super agile and fast spider, Diana tries to weave her web around the Angel before her, getting closer and closer with every inch that may manage to twirl about the other's form!

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Angela had a plan for the lasso. She has a pair of blades on her, and the lasso is a rope. Rope can be cut.
    Most rope can be cut.
    Her left arm crosses her body, axe blade facing outward so the lasso will catch and sever itself on angelic metal. To Angela's genuine surprise, it refuses to be cut. Her gauntleted hand grabs the length of the lasso and shoots out to the side, trying to pull the entangling rope away from her body and achieving some success, but her left arm is bound to her chest before she can do anything to stop it.
    Her ribbons, unconcerned about being held against Angela's body, slither easily out of the lasso's grip to prepare to block the inevitable incoming strike.

Diana Prince has posed:
As soon as Diana has enough of the lasso around the other woman to immobilize her sufficiently, the Princess strikes!

Only not with sword, but rather she lunges toward the woman with her knee up to the back of one of Angela's own! Her intent is to unbalance the woman, but in doing so, those pesky ribbons wrap around Diana's left lifted leg! She drops her weight on to them as she spins around in mid air with her right leg extended out to sweep Angela's feet out from under her!

And both women end up on the ground with Diana on her left side in the sand looking over at the other wrapped up in the lasso. She looks down at herself with her legs wrapped up in the ribbons and then shoots her eyes back up to the Angel's!

Diana exhales a sharp release of air, her dark hair wild around her shoulders and across her face, flecks of sandy grains covering the strands.

"A draw, I believe." She says then before she releases a light laugh.

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Angela, lying on her side in the sand facing Diana and breathing heavily, eyes as wide as an attacking animal's, closes her mouth over her teeth and shakes her head. "No. You won. I made more errors than you did." It's the kind of thing one might only expect to hear while tied in the Lasso of Truth, but Diana didn't ask Angela a question, so that kind of bluntness is apparently just how Angela is.
    Having surrendered, her shapeshifting weapons are flowing back up her arms to become bracelets again. Slowly, her ribbons retreat, feeling like smooth silk on Wonder Woman's skin even though they're made of sentient angelic metal; though it's possible they might be more abrasive to someone whose complexion is less vulnerable than Diana's.
    Angela could get up from this position on her own. She can fly, after all. But it would be unworthy of her. Instead, she lowers her gaze from Diana's for the first time, humbly. "I yield to she who has defeated me."

Diana Prince has posed:
This response has a soft smile appearing on the Amazon's lips as she moves to stand. Her left knee is planted in to the arena floor before she is up on her feet, with sand falling off of her body back to the ground. With Angela wrapped up in the lasso of Truth, Diana has to first help the Angelic woman back up.

"Well. Whatever mistakes you may have made this time..." She says as she reaches down to offer a hand and help the woman stand back up.

"I am sure you won't make them again." She says then as she moves to untwine the lasso from around the other's form, showing her a friendly smile then.

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Angela accepts Diana's hand to rise, and nods at the princess. "This is true. You need not console me, Lady Diana. There is no shame to be defeated by a peer." Yeah, she said peer, what of it?
    Angela's featureless eyes notice a good deal more sparkle than had been present a few moments ago, and she nods critically. "Here. Permit me." Without waiting for an anser, she reaches with both hands for Diana's hair, and, with a shocking amount of gentleness from someone with her disposition, she begins carefully coaxing the sand out with a series of feather-light brushes.

Diana Prince has posed:
With Angela back on her feet, the golden lasso falls away, the warmth of its glowing light leaving the twine as it is coiled back up by being drawn through Diana's leather wrapped palms. She offers a smile at the other as she looks to the helpful hands to brush the sand from her loose dark strands. "Oh, yes. Thank you..." She says happily as she looks from Angela's left to right hand before back up at her, the lasso coiled back up and held in front of the Princess' lap.

"One of the downsides of combat here, I suppose." She says with a slight grin. "You get used to it after a few centuries." She pauses then before adding. "Mostly, at least."

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Angela nods. "Dirt is permissible, when there is no alternative. There is one today. It will take some time to remove all of it, so please alert me when you are tired of being groomed by me." She works fast but diligently, like a soldier who's been told to scrub the barracks with a toothbrush. Her breathing is already slow and calm, almost dreamy. The meditation of labor, maybe.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana laughs softly now as she reattaches her lasso to the leather harness wrapped about her torso. She lets it hang on her right hip as she regards the other. "I think you got most of it now..." She says then with a grin still visible. "The rest usually falls off over time. Until one gets home and finds it pouring out of, well, everywhere." Anakin Skywalker knows about that!

Diana reaches down to the ground then, bending at the knees to gather up her sword and take it over to the rack where she places it back where she got it. Her eyes look back over her right shoulder then. "Would you like to see more of the Center, or have you had enough of me inviting you here and pummeling you with sword and strikes?"

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    "I wish to see more," Angela responds promptly. Xiphos (which could have cut the lasso, she thinks) is reattached to its place in the small of her back. She lifts her huge, skirt-sized belt several inches above her hips to bunch up around her waist so she can brush the sand off her purple bottom, lest she be invited to sit somewhere that the sand might grind into the fabric of, with a complete lack of self-consciousness before letting it drop into place again. "Please, lead the way."